Vote counting begins for Delhi Assembly polls

New Delhi: Counting of ballots for the bitterly-fought Delhi Assembly polls, seen as having significance beyond borders of the capital, began this morning amid tight security.

The electoral fate of former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his challengers from BJP Kiran Bedi and Congress’ Ajay Maken and 670 other candidates will be known today.

Counting of votes is taking place simultaneously at 14 Centres across the city.

Delhi Assembly election result is being seen as an indicator of the popularity of the BJP government at the Centre though the party has rejected this view.

The Election Commission has made elaborate security arrangements for the counting.

All the exit polls had given AAP a decisive edge over BJP with one of them giving it as high as 53 seats in the 70-member House.

The BJP had rejected the exit polls and exuded confidence of wresting power in Delhi after a gap of 16 years. The party yesterday said it would get 34-38 seats.

A record 67.14 per cent turnout was recorded in the polls on Saturday.

The stakes in this election are high for both BJP and AAP which had put up a spirited fight during the high-voltage campaign.

India Today-Cicero poll, after the end of polling, gave AAP 38 to 46 seats in the 70-member House and BJP 19 to 27 while Congress is predicted to get between three and five.

Today’s Chanakya poll on News 24 channel gave AAP a higher figure of 48 seats and 22 to BJP. The poll says Congress and allies may fail to open account.

Another poll on News Nation projected 41 to 45 seats for AAP, 23 to 27 for BJP and 1 to 3 for Congress.

In the 2013 elections, AAP had got 28 seats and had to to tie up with Congress’ 8 to form a short-lived government of 49 days in the 2013 polls. The BJP had then emerged the single largest with 32 seats.

The ABP-Nielsen poll said that AAP will get 39 while BJP 28 and Congress 3.

Zee TV-C Voter poll projected 31 to 39 seats for AAP and 27 to 35 seats for BJP. Congress gets 2 to 4 in the poll.

The highest number of 53 seats for AAP has been predicted by India News-Axis poll, which gave BJP 17 and Congress upto 2.